Voice over IP method of determining caller identification

ABSTRACT

Before completing a call initiated at a calling telephony device for a called telephony device; caller identification information for the calling telephony device is obtained for the call. If standard caller identification information is not available, the caller is prompted to provide spoken caller identification information. The caller identification information is communicated to the called telephony device via a connectionless protocol such as VoIP where a continuing connection does not exist between communicating end points. The called party is given call disposition options. The process which controls this operation may be located anywhere in the network, including at switching equipment and at the called telephony device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No.10/328,706, filed Dec. 23, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,211, which ishereby incorporated herein by this reference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to telecommunication servicesand more particularly to caller identification using Voice Over InternetProtocol (VoIP) methods and systems.

Telecommunications service providers typically offer services thatattempt to provide customers with information that enables them todetermine whether or not to accept a call before answering the call. Oneservice that provides such information is caller identification (“CallerID”). Standard Caller ID services generally provide a customer with anindication of who is calling without requiring the customer to answerthe call. These systems typically retrieve information about the callingparty from a database and provide that information to the called party.Customer premise equipment (CPE) in the form of a display device isgenerally used to provide the called party with a visual readout of thename and/or telephone number associated with the calling party.

However, the effectiveness of Caller ID systems can be reduced due to anumber of different occurrences. One such occurrence is the inability ofa service provider to provide the standard Caller ID information for aparticular incoming call. A service provider may not be able to providethe standard Caller ID information if the Caller ID information isblocked by the calling party, or if the Caller ID information isunavailable or incomplete. Also, the service provider may not be able toprovide the standard Caller ID information if the call is marked“Private,” indicating that the calling party has taken steps to suppresstransmission of Caller ID information. This may be done, in some areasof the United States by, for example, pressing *67 when initiating acall.

When the standard Caller ID information cannot be provided, the calledparty is not adequately informed about who is calling and cannotdetermine whether or not to accept the incoming call before answeringthe call. Because the effectiveness of Caller ID systems is greatlyreduced when information cannot be provided, there is a need for animproved system and method for providing caller identificationinformation that overcomes these deficiencies.

patent application Ser. No. 09/122,484, filed Jul. 24, 1998 isincorporated herein by reference. This patent application discloses amethod and system for providing a called party with audible calleridentification information when standard caller identification cannot beprovided. When standard caller identification cannot be provided, thecall is blocked and a request for audible caller identification istransmitted to the calling party. The audible information issubsequently transmitted to the called party.

patent application Ser. No. 09/253,339, filed Feb. 19, 1999 illustratesin further detail implementation of this technique in atelecommunications system including Advanced Information Network (AIN)elements. This application is incorporated herein by reference. Thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN) includes a substantial numberof AIN devices such as Service Switching Points (SSPs), Service ControlPoints (SCPs), Signalling Transfer Points (STPs) and Service Nodes (SNs)which may be configured to provide call handling methods, includingcaller identification.

However, to increase PSTN capacity and flexibility, many serviceproviders and customers are developing Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) technologies. VoIP is a system in which voice or speech isconverted to electrical signals and digitized. The digital signals aresegmented into packets, with each packet including a header withaddressing information and a payload of digital data. The speech datamay also be compressed or converted to other formats to improveefficiency or network operation. Using the standardized transmissioncontrol protocol and internet protocol (commonly referred to together asTCP/IP), packets are communicated from an origin through one or morenetwork routers to a destination. The routers using the packet headerfor routing each packet.

While VoIP systems are effective for communication of speechinformation, many desirable features of AIN are missing from VoIPsystems. For example, VoIP systems lack a method for processing callswhen Caller ID information can not be provided for a VoIP call. As aresult, the call recipient lacks the necessary information for decidingto accept the call.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus forproviding enhanced caller identification information in atelecommunication system using VoIP systems and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communications system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portion of the communication system ofFIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of one embodiment of thecommunication system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS AND THE PRESENTLY PREFERREDEMBODIMENTS

By way of introduction, a system and method in accordance with theembodiments disclosed herein employ voice over internet protocol (VoIP)techniques for providing caller identification for a received call.Calls may be routed using VoIP links or any other component of thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN), including Advanced IntelligentNetwork (AIN) elements, or a combination of these technologies,including wireless links. The system permits handling of unidentifiedcalls for which no caller information is available.

If a caller receives an unidentified call, the calling party is promptedthat the called party does not accept unidentified calls. The callingparty is provided several options, including in one embodimentunblocking the call, if call blocking is enabled, recording the caller'sname for identification purposes, and entry of an access code providedby the called party to bypass the service.

If the called party accepts the recorded identification, the calledparty is further given call disposition options. These include acceptingthe call and being connected to the caller immediately, routing the callto voice mail and automatically informing the caller that solicitationsare not accepted and to add the called party to the caller's “do notcall” list. If the called party does not answer the call, it will betreated as a normal missed call.

In one embodiment, the caller can customize the language presentation aswell as creating access codes for preferred callers, for example, viaInteractive Voice Response, a World Wide Web based system, or a softwareapplication.

The system and method in accordance with these embodiments andextensions thereof will enable VoIP subscribers the opportunity toscreen unknown and unwanted calls that would otherwise be unidentifiedusing VoIP solutions. It is expected that VoIP systems will proliferateand this system allows older technologies to be updated and cooperatewith newer technologies.

Referring now to the drawing, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of acommunication system 100. The communication system 100 includes a firsttelephony device 102 and a second telephony device 104 interconnected bya communication network 106. The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 isexemplary only. Extensions, modifications and variations thereof will bereadily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the arts oftelecommunications and computer system design and operation.

The first telephony device 102 includes a user interface 110, acontroller 112, a sound card 114, a VoIP controller 116 and a networkinterface device 118. The second telephony device 104 is generallysimilar and includes a user interface 120, a controller 122, a soundcard 124, a VoIP controller 126 and a network interface device 128.

Each of the telephony devices 102, 104 provides at least voicecommunication and may provide data communication. The telephony devices102, 104 may be configured as a wide variety of devices. These includewire line telephones, wireless telephones, private branch exchanges(PBX), personal computers and personal digital assistants (PDA). Thisfurther includes any type of data processing device, such as a personalcomputer, data switch, gateway or router which may be connected to anetwork, including local area networks and external networks includingthe internet.

As noted, the composition of the various components of the telephonydevices 102, 104 may vary. The user interface 102, 122 provides usercontrol and information about operation of the respective telephonydevice 102, 104. In some embodiments, the user interface 102, 104 mayinclude a keypad or keyboard, a touch sensitive pad, a display includinglight emitting diodes, a liquid crystal display, fluorescent or flatpanel display or cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. Also, for audio inputand output, the user interface 102, 104 may include a microphone andspeaker. The user interface 102, 104 provides user interaction with thedevice.

The controller 112, 122 may be implemented as any processor, computer,microcomputer, digital signal processor, logic circuit or otherprocessing device. The controller 112, 122 controls the operation of thetelephony device 102, 104. In a typical application, the controller 112,122 includes digital logic that operates in conjunction with computerexecutable code to process data and instructions. In the embodiment, ofFIG. 1, the controller 112, 122 includes a memory for storing data andinstructions. However, in other embodiments, storage may be providedelsewhere in the device.

The sound card 114, 124 provides audio processing in the telephonydevices 122. In particular, the sound card 114, 124 converts digitaldata received over the network 106 to audible speech and convertsreceived analog speech signals to digital data. The sound card 114, 124may also provide filtering, conditioning and other signal processingfunctions.

The VoIP controller 116, 126 controls voice over IP processing in therespective device 102, 104. In particular, the VoIP controller 116, 126packetizes data including data representative of speech for transmissionfrom the device and extracts speech data from received data packets.Packetizing data involves time-segmenting the speech data and formattingpackets according to the communication protocol, such as internetprotocol or IP. Formatting includes combining the packet payload of datawith a packet header including source address information anddestination address information. Speech extraction involvesreconstructing speech from packets that have been sequentially generatedby may be randomly retrieved due to routing variations over the network106.

The network interface device 118, 128 provides physical layercommunication specific to the network channel or link by which therespective telephony device 102, 104 communicates with the network 106.For example, if the telephony device 102 communicates over a 56Kbytes/sec modem to a twisted-pair telephone wire, the network interfacedevice 118 is embodied as such a modem, along with associated hardwareand software. If, on the other hand, the telephony device 104communicates over a wireless link with the network 106, the networkinterface device 128 includes appropriate transmit (TX) and receive (RX)circuitry, modulators and demodulators, local oscillator, etc. Therespective network interface device provides the necessary communicationfacilities.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of one embodiment of the network 106. In theexemplary embodiment of FIG. 2, the network 106 includes a combinationof Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) elements and routers which operateaccording to a connectionless telephony protocol such as TransmissionControl Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The network 106 is thusrepresentative of the public switched telephone network, which combineselements of both connectionless and connection oriented communication.

Connection oriented communication is exemplified by AIN and itcommunication system, Signalling System 7. In a connection orientednetwork, a connection is established between communicating end pointsand the connection is maintained throughout the duration of thecommunication. In an AIN network, a connection is made from a callingparty to a local end office switch. The switch is connected through thenetwork to a second local end office switch, which serves the calledparty. Connections in the path may be temporary and may be dropped afterthe call is complete. However, during the call, the connections aremaintained, even is there is little or no traffic over the connection.

A connectionless communication system is exemplified by the internet asaccessed by TCP/IP. Any communication is packetized, or broken down intodiscrete packets of digital data or packet data. The packets includedata for communication from the calling party to the called party. Thepackets also include control data such as the network address of thecalling party and the network address of the called party. Each packetis transmitted over the network, which includes a plurality of routers.The routers read the control information of the packet and route thepacket accordingly. Because of traffic and other conditions, the pathfrom calling communication station to called communication is in generalrandom and each packet takes an independent path through the network.The packets are reassembled at the called communication station forpresentation to the calling party.

Thus, the exemplary network 106 of FIG. 2 includes AIN componentsincluding a first service switching point (SSP) 202, a service controlpoint (SCP) 204 and a second SSP 206. The network may include other AINcomponents and provide additional connectivity. Each of SSP 202 and SSP204 includes in this embodiment an AIN switch that routes calls,recognizes and responds to triggers, generates queries to obtain callinformation and responds to returned call information. SCP 204 in thisembodiment an AIN element that stores call information and receives andresponds to queries. SCP 204 stores call control information in anassociated SCP database 208 and can access the stored call controlinformation. SCP 206 also stores standard caller identificationinformation in the SCP database 208 and can access the stored calleridentification information. SCP 204 receives queries generated by SSP202 and SSP 206 and preferably responds to the queries by performingdatabase searches to locate the requested call control information orcaller identification information as known to those skilled in the art.SCP 204 can forward the call control information or calleridentification information to SSP 202 and SSP 206. The SCP 204communicates with the SSP 202 over a link 210. The SCP 204 communicateswith SSP 206 over a link 212. The SSPs 204, 206 communicate over a link214.

In the context of FIG. 1, if the telephony device 102 is a telephonedevice, the SSP 202 connects with the telephony device 102 and providesend office switching functions for the telephony device. The telephonydevice 102 and the SSP 202 are connected by a local loop telephone line.Similarly, the SSP 206 serves as an end office for the telephony device104 and is connected to the telephony device 104 by a local looptelephone line if the telephony device is a land line telephone orsimilar device. If the telephony device 104 is a wireless or otherradiotelephone, the SSP 206 may connect with the telephony device 104through a radiotelephone system including a mobile switching center anda base station.

Operating in parallel with the connection oriented network formed by theAIN components is a connectionless network formed by routers 220, 222,224 and gateways 228, 230 all communicating using a connectionlessprotocol such as TCP/IP. Each router 220, 222, 224 receives packets,makes routing decisions based on the control information contained inthe packets, and forwards the packets in accordance with the routingdecisions. The router 222 further includes a router database 226 whichstores information including caller identification information. Thegateways 228, 230 provide communication access to the connectionlessnetwork. The gateway 228 is connected to SSP 202 and the gateway 230 isconnected to the SSP 206 to provide access and communication between theAIN network and the TCP/IP network. The network may include otherconnectionless protocol devices, such as an Internet Protocol (IP)Centrex or central exchange, an IP private branch exchange (PBX) isintegrated services digital network (ISDN) switch.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method foroperating the communication system 100 of FIG. 2. The method illustratesoperation of a connectionless network such as a VoIP communicationsystem. In the illustrated method, a call from a calling party at acalling communication station such as the telephony device 102 of FIG. 1is received in a communication network such as the network 106. The callis first blocked from completing and processed to determine if calleridentification information (CLID) can be provided. If not, an attempt ismade to obtain caller identification for the call.

Thus, before completing a call initiated at a calling telephony devicefor a called telephony device; the method includes obtaining calleridentification information for the calling telephony device. The methodfurther includes communicating the caller identification information tothe called telephony device via a connectionless protocol wherecontinuing connection does not exist between communicating end points.

The caller identification information may be obtained in any availablemanner. In an AIN system, identification information for thecommunication device which originates the call is including in thesignaling that sets up the call. In one example, the calleridentification information may be retrieved from an AIN data source suchas a query message or trigger and included in one or more packets of IPdata representing the call.

In another example, the caller identification may be retrieved from adatabase in the network, such as the database 226 associated with therouter 222 in FIG. 2. If a data packet including address information forthe calling communication station is received at the router 222, therouter 222 may supplement the control information of the packet with thecaller identification information. If another router receives a datapacket including address information for the calling communicationstation, the router may send a query to the router 222 seeking thecaller identification information associated with that addressinformation. If available in the database 226, the router 222 returns aresponse message to the querying router with the CLID information whichis then added to the control information of the packet.

In yet another example, the calling party is prompted to provide audiblecaller identification information. The calling party may be given otherprompts or options as well. In this embodiment, all communication is bymeans of a connectionless protocol such as TCP/IP. One method embodyingthis example is shown in FIG. 3.

The method of FIG. 3 may be implemented in software, hardware or anycombination of the two. Moreover, the method of FIG. 3 may be performedat any suitable location in the network. In exemplary embodiments, themethod is implemented as a service resident on VoIP switching equipment,such as an IP Centrex, an IP PBX or ISDN switch. In other embodiments,the method is implemented in customer premise equipment (CPE) such as atelephone, radiotelephone or adjunct equipment such as a digitalanswering machine, or on a user's personal computer or other processingdevice. The method may be embodied as a software package stored at andoperating in conjunction with any network device. The software packageincludes a computer readable medium such as a magnetic or optical mediumhaving computer executable software code stored thereon for processing acall in a network from the calling party at the calling telephony deviceto the called party at the called telephony device. The service may besold on a subscription basis to subscribers. The method begins at block300.

At block 302, one or more packets of data for the call are received. Thepackets may be received at a router, Centrex, PBX or other networkequipment, or may be received at customer premise equipment. The one ormore data packets are call initiation packets and contain controlinformation, such as command information defining the call set upprocedure to be followed and address information, including the networkaddress of the calling party or caller and the network address of thecalled party. Alternatively, or in addition, the address information maydefine the telephone number of the calling party or the telephone numberof the called party. Each of the calling party and the called party hasassociated therewith a telephony device or communication station whichis connectable to the network by wire line or wireless link.

In response to the received packets, the call is suspended pendingfurther processing. A message may be played to the calling party.

At block 304, the software package or device determines if calleridentification information may be provided for the call. The calleridentification may not be available due to a number of differentoccurrences. One such occurrence is the inability of a service providerto provide the standard caller identification information for aparticular incoming call. This may occur if the caller identificationinformation is blocked or the call is marked Private by the callingparty, or if the caller identification information is unavailable orincomplete.

For a VoIP packet seeking to initiate a call, the device which receivesthe packet may analyze the control information contained in a header ofthe packet. If the caller identification information is present,operation of the device proceeds to block 318. If the calleridentification information is not present, operation of the deviceproceeds to block 306.

At block 306, packets forming a request are formatted for transmissionto the calling party at the calling communication station. In oneembodiment, the request is for audible caller identificationinformation. The request for audible caller information may include aninformational message, such as a statement that the called party doesnot accept unidentified or telemarketing calls. The request may includedata which, when played through the user interface of a telephonydevice, produces an audible spoken message. In addition to a request foraudible caller identification information, or in place of such arequest, the request may prompt the calling party to take some otheraction, such as entering an access code or to unblock the calleridentification information for the calling communication station. Inanother embodiment, the request may play a no solicitation message tothe caller, informing the caller that the called party does not acceptcalls from unidentified callers. Any other suitable message or promptmay be formatted in packets for communication to the calling party.

The packets are formatted with a header including addressing informationand any other required control information. The header also includes theaddress of the network element or customer premise equipment (CPE) whichoriginates the request and to which a response should be sent. Thepackets are formatted with a data portion which includes data to controlthe playing of the request to the calling party. The data may be datarepresentative of speech, for example, data can be provided to a text tospeech module to play the request to the calling party. Alternatively,the data can cause a pre-recorded message to be selected from a databasein the network and played to the calling party. In the illustratedembodiment, the packets are formatted according to a VoIP protocol, butany suitable protocol including any connectionless communicationprotocol may be used to format the packets.

The request data packets are sent to the calling communication stationat block 308. In accordance with a connectionless protocol, the messageis packetized and the packets are sent to a gateway and routers of thenetwork, which route the individual packets according to their addressinformation and other network considerations.

In response to the prompts contained in the request data packets, thecalling party takes some action. For example, the calling party mayspeak his name, producing audible or spoken caller identificationinformation. The calling party may enter an access code, using a keypador keyboard of the calling communication station. The response ispacketized at the calling communication in an appropriate format,including a packet header with address and other control information.The response packets are then communicated over the network to thenetwork component or CPE controlling the process.

At block 310, the response packets are received. In a manner consistentwith IP or other connectionless protocol processing, the packets arereassembled into proper order and the response is detected. A suitablereaction to the response then occurs. In the exemplary embodiment ofFIG. 4, the spoken caller identification information is provided to thecalled party, block 312.

If the illustrated process is operating on the called communicationstation, the controller of the called communication activates the userinterface of the called communication station, block 314, to provide thecaller identification information. For example, an alert may be soundedto indicate the incoming call and, when the alert is acknowledged by theuser of the called communication station, the audible calleridentification information is played through a speaker to the user. Iftext data defining the caller identification information is available,the text data may be presented on a display of the user interface. Thecalled party is also given call disposition options, such as acceptingthe call, rejecting the call or routing the call to voice mail.

Other suitable reactions to the response may occur as well. If theresponse includes an access code, the device receiving the access codevalidates the provided access code. Validation may include comparing thereceived access code with a stored list of valid access codes andreturning a result. The result includes an indication of the validity ofthe access code. The result may also include the stored calleridentification information associated with the received access code,which is provided on the CPE user interface.

If the illustrated process is operating on a network element other thanthe called communication station, such as on an IP Centrex or IP PBX,the network element formats an appropriate forwarding message for thecalled communication station. If the response from the callingcommunication station includes caller identification information, theforwarding message conveys the caller identification information to thecalled party along with call disposition options, along with calldisposition options such as accepting or rejecting the call, or routingthe call to voice mail. If the response from the calling communicationstation includes a valid access code, the call is completed immediatelyto the called communication station. The network switch or element inone embodiment acts like an AIN intelligent peripheral, that is, it actsas an agent that manages switching. In this case, it manages switchingbetween the two platforms. The network element acts as an intelligentagent within a peripheral device to manage switching of the call. Thenetwork element communicates the forwarding message to the called partyusing IP or other connectionless protocol and awaits a response.

When the forwarding message is received at the called communicationstation, the audible caller identification information is provided tothe user interface for the called party. The call disposition optionsare also provided and the called party is prompted to select a calldisposition option.

When a call disposition option has been selected, a selection message isformatted at the called communication station and returned to thenetwork element handling the process. The selection message includes oneor more packets including data defining how the call should be handled.If the called party opts to complete the call, the network elementcompletes the call between the calling communication station and thecalled communication station. As described above, the network elementacts as an intelligent agent within a peripheral device to manageswitching of the call. If the called party rejects the call, the networkelement cancels the call, and may format a cancellation message to thecalling communication station, notifying of the cancellations. If thecalled party opts to send the call to voice mail, the network elementactivates a voice mail process. The voice mail process plays an outgoingmessage to the calling party and records an incoming message from thecalling party, if one is provided. The voice mail process may reside atthe network element processing the call or the call may be routed overthe connectionless network to another device which provides the voicemail process.

As can be seen from the foregoing, the disclosed method and apparatusprovide caller identification information in a connectionless networkusing, for example, VoIP processing. A call is suspended whileavailability of standard caller identification information is tested.VoIP messages are used to prompt the caller for caller identificationinformation, or to provide the caller with other options, and to forwardthe provided information to the called party. The process which controlsthe operation may reside at any convenient locations in the network,including customer premises equipment or network switching elements.

While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shownand described, modifications may be made. It is therefore intended inthe appended claims to cover such changes and modifications which followin the true spirit and scope of the invention.

1. Apparatus for providing caller identification information associatedwith a calling communication station to a called party, the apparatuscomprising: a caller identification server means for obtaining thecaller identification information for the calling communication station;means for determining whether the caller identification associated withthe calling communication station is blocked; first prompting means forprompting a calling party associated with the calling communicationstation to record spoken caller identification information and to storedata representative of the spoken caller identification information;second prompting means for prompting the calling party to unblock theblocked caller identification information and to store datarepresentative of the unblocked caller identification information;packaging means for converting the data representative of spoken calleridentification information or the data representative of the unblockedcaller identification information into a plurality of data packets; anda dispatch device to transmit the plurality of data packets to a deviceassociated with an Internet protocol address via a network.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1 further comprising: real time routing means forrouting packets via different routes using a real time protocol (RTP)for timely transmission of the plurality of data packets.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein the caller identification server meansfurther comprises: access means for retrieving from a database calleridentification data for the calling communication station when thestandard caller identification information is unblocked; and facilitiesto communicate the caller identification data to the called party usinga connectionless protocol.
 4. A method for processing a call in acommunications system which includes interconnected networks, the methodcomprising the steps of: detecting a call from a calling party at acalling communication station to a called communication station, atleast one network of the communications system communicating accordingto an internet protocol standard; determining if standard calleridentification information for the calling communication station can beprovided to the called communication station; if standard calleridentification information cannot be provided, formatting one or moreinternet protocol (IP) packets bearing a request for spoken calleridentification information and transmitting the IP packets to thecalling communication station; storing data defining the spoken calleridentification when provided; if standard caller identificationinformation can be provided, obtaining data defining the standard calleridentification information; formatting the stored data defining thespoken caller identification information or the data defining thestandard caller identification as a plurality of IP packets; andproviding the plurality of IP packets to the called communicationstation to be reassembled for playback to a called party of the calledcommunication station.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein determining ifstandard caller identification can be provided comprises: determining ifthe call from the calling party includes signaling information definingthe standard caller identification.
 6. The method of claim 4 whereindetermining if standard caller identification can be provided comprises:retrieving the standard caller identification information from a nameand number database of the communications system.
 7. A method foroperating a telephony device, the method comprising: receiving telephonecall packet data for a call from a caller over a connectionless network;if the telephone call packet data defines caller identificationinformation for the call, sounding an incoming call alert and presentingthe caller identification information on a user interface of thetelephony device; if the telephone call packet data does not definecaller identification information, formatting one or more packets forcommunication over the connectionless network to prompt a calleroriginating the call to provide spoken caller identificationinformation; subsequently, receiving over the connectionless networkpacket data defining the spoken caller identification information overthe connectionless network; providing the spoken caller identificationinformation on the user interface of the telephony device; and providinginformation on the user interface of the telephony device to give theuser of the called party options to accept the call, reject the call,forward the call to voice mail, present a no solicitation message to thecalling party, and block future calls from the calling telephony device.8. The method of claim 7 further comprising: formatting one or morepackets for communication over the connectionless network to prompt thecaller to provide an access code; receiving packet data defining theaccess code; validating the access code; and sounding the incoming callalert of the telephony device in response to validation of the accesscode.
 9. The method of claim 8 further comprising: when sounding theincoming call alert, providing a user interface access callidentification.
 10. The method of claim 7 wherein formatting the one ormore data packets comprises: packetizing a caller prompt inviting thecaller to either provide the spoken caller identification information orto unblock standard caller identification information.